You can be trout of yourself! Achievement in Castaway Paradise Complete Edition (PC) 0: Unlock Percentages. Castaway Paradise Achievement Sessions. Helped the Museum Achievement in Castaway Paradise Complete Edition: Donate a collectable. Find guides to this achievement here.
When Animal Crossing hit GameCube in 2002, it took months of my life with it. The simple experience of living in a digital coastal town, helping villagers, fishing and just existing somehow managed to be ridiculously compelling. Over the years a few other titles have attempted to utilize the Animal Crossing formula, but none have done it justice. The latest in this lineage is Castaway Paradise. The game first came to Android and iOS and just recently saw release on Steam. Its reverence to that Nintendo classic isn’t obscured in any way. Instead of trying to pass the product off as something entirely new, their tagline is “it’s like Animal Crossing!” Who said there wasn’t truth in advertising?
Still, the question remains: how do the two games compare and is Castaway Paradise doing things differently or better to make the Early Access purchase worth it yet?Well, it should probably go without saying, but basically nothing out there could ever hope to beat Animal Crossing at its own game. Even so, Castaway Paradise offers a handful of tweaks that make it worth a look. First, let’s detail how the game starts players off. You emerge as a seaweed-covered humanoid who has apparently washed up on the shore of a small island. The locals greet you, de-seaweed you, and immediately start throwing tasks every which way. For whatever reason you are the only one who can manage their menial little lives!
And so things get rolling, taking fetch quests one at a time. After a quest is completed you’re almost always given a new one right after from the same character or another one. Rinse and repeat – forever.As with its inspiration, there’s a variety of things to do while playing Castaway Paradise. Although there’s no Nook-like character forcing you into a home upgrade scheme, you do have the ability to upgrade your abode. It starts out as a measly tent so that’s definitely something players will want to change. You can outfit your home with items purchased from catalogs, discovered on the island, or given as a thank you from villagers or for leveling up. Speaking of which, the leveling up system is wholly unique here.
Each level grants players more goodies but also gets them a step closer to VIP status. Once at level 15 you become a VIP, which opens up access to more areas and objects. Although I’ve not played the mobile release, it seems that much of the gameplay design stands out as odd when brought to the PC.
VIP, for example, was meant as a gatekeeping measure for free players. Although the app itself was free, buying VIP was a temporary bonus to be had for those willing to shell out a few bucks. Similarly, the slow accumulation of XP and gems when not completing missions appears like another stereotypical method of nabbing real cash from players. No in-game purchases exist in Castaway Paradise on Steam, though the game does cost $14.99.
In comparison, that’s about how much two months of VIP cost via mobile.Honestly though, at this moment it’s these distinct mobile-focused design decisions which make the PC release more challenging to enjoy. For example, ready to unlock a new part of the island after completing enough missions?
Even after you select to do so you’ll then have to wait an hour of real time for the event to finish. Sure, Animal Crossing was well known for basing everything around actual time, but it’s a bit annoying to see the implementation here. After all, of things people adore about that title, its restrictive time element is not one of them.There’s also the fact that Castaway Paradise is plainly designed for touch screen interfaces. A few updates have already gone out to make it playable with keyboard, but it’s still not quite there yet. It also seems like a big challenge to get the game running with controllers since activating events/objects/etc is done by clicking an icon which pops up rather than just pressing an “activate” button. It does seem that the developers are listening to their audience and doing all they can to make the transition from mobile to PC as seamless as possible, though.Unlike most games on Early Access, Castaway Paradise basically is a complete product. The biggest issue they’re struggling with is how to price in-game items when there’s no potential for in-app bulk gem purchases anymore.
Rebalancing a digital economy sounds easy — but in reality there’s probably a lot more to it. There’s also still a strong need to make the interface more palpable to PC players. At least the base product is fully functioning (unlike so many other Early Access candidates). Those who adore these types of games will find there’s something exciting about Castaway Paradise, but the kinks need to be ironed out first.
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